Chapter 39 : Expensive Pain

A/N: With this chap we've officially reached 100k words, that's the biggest shit I have ever written, considering that I only wrote textes at school and it was capped at 250 words max lol.

So I wanna thank everybody who is still reading this book and giving stones daily even though I'm only posting once a week.

I'll be honest, I kinda lost motivation to write last month but I'm forcing myself to at least publish 4 chapters. It's just that I don't particularly have time to, between uni, my social life and sports… And even when I do get some free time, I don't wanna be bothered with writing.

So I thought about fastening the pace. I know that some people don't like the current arc, so I guess I'ma need to speed it up a bit. And as I've told it before, this arc deals with Rumi 'dreams' then we'll have a last arc about Kurai before entering UA (and smut).

I also saw some people commenting about the 'drama' going on. I just wanted to say that I don't think this bit can be considered as drama, but even so I do think that it's better to have it sooner. This story is a harem, and I don't want to make the girls be like "Oh you like him too? Let's be sisters!"

Nah, so I thought that' I'll try slowly over the years, imagine if Rumi could accept Ryuko (Or the opposite), it'll then be a free entry for the third then the fourth etc…

(Not saying that it'll happen like that tho ;p)

Oh yeah I also saw some people still commenting on the poll chapter (harem or not), I made that for fun knowing that I won't change the story even if 'no harem' won… Should I delete it?

And I guess that some smart asses over here guessed the 4 first girls, dunno about the fifth, I still haven't given any clue yet.

Sorry for the long A/N But we reached 100k words!!! Here's a pic, consider it as an apology! And keep 'em stones coming!

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Immediately the 3 kids raised their arms to make a 'T' with their bodies. It was obviously to keep a good body balance throughout the challenge.

"The start looks chill, innit?" Kurai was placed in the middle, so he had to look on both sides if he wanted to match gaze with either Rumi or Araki.

In the end, he couldn't help but want to taunt his comrades, 'It's boooring.'

It was the start so they still had enough room to move their feets if they were itching or sore.

Not even letting his 2 friends answer, he was already back at it, "Ayo Ryuko-chan~! You could've made this harder!"

The little dragon only smiled quietly, already used to him. But the truth was that she knew what awaited them later.

The blank was soon filled by an upset rabbit.

"Oi! Bastard! Why do you keep calling her -chan?!" Obviously her habits weren't shaken.

Kurai put his little finger into his right ear and scratched it, "Stop barking so loudly, it's not befitting of a rabbit, jeez."

Rumi remained unmoving after his provocation, still her furrowed eyebrows showed that she wasn't joking.

Inwardly, Kurai had completely different thoughts, 'How could I not want to joke with you when you look so cute?'

Indeed to him, Rumi now had a mix of anger and concentration because she was trying hard to not fall while being mad at him.

"Ahem… She's my friend of course!" He tried to defend.

"Your what—?"

Rumi glanced back at him near instantly, but her quick movement made her feet slip.

Kurai acted as if he saw nothing and answered seriously, "Everybody can make friends, did I ever stop you from making new friends?"

After regaining her composure and listening to him, Rumi recalled her past 5 years with him.

Memories upon memories flashed through her mind, good times with him where they laughed, fought, and joked. And true to Kurai's words, he never stopped her.

She was the one isolating herself and distancing from people she deemed not worthy.

That's why she could only keep her mouth shut after his remark, not knowing what to say.

Minutes passed like that in silence, when the odd boy, Araki finally opened his mouth.

He waited for the awkward mood to settle, and tried to shoot his shot after seeing that the 2 friends may have a crack on their armours.

"Look Rumi-san, can I call you Rumi-san?"

"..." The small rabbit didn't even bat an eye.

"I guess..." It didn't shake Araki so he continued.

"If you want I can be your friend."

""..."" This time it was the dragon's and the cat's turn to be speechless.

Rumi though, shoot him a sharp glare, "Wha' did ya say?"

"That I wanted to be friends with you?"

"I heard the first time thanks, but you really had the guts to tell me twice, huh?"

"Bahahahah!" Kurai couldn't hold it anymore and let his laugh echo through the vast sea.

Their reactions left Araki gobsmacked, he really didn't understand why his 'innocent' request took such a turn of event.

What he thought was a fall out in their relationship, was in the end only a small argument that Rumi and Kurai may have on a daily basis.

It absolutely didn't mean that they hated each other, and Araki misunderstood it.

Even though the tanned rabbit wanted to have friends, she wasn't someone to easily open-up and give her trust to anyone.

And someone as shady as Araki clearly wasn't cutting out, he seemed to lack everything, from strength to demeanor and courage.

That's also why Kurai was laughing, as someone who understood very well his best friend, he knew from the start that his request was bound to meet harsh rebuttal.

"Stop laughing Idiot! Our matters aren't settled yet, hmph!"

"Ahaha! Okay Rumi-san!" He let his tongue out to taunt them again.

The 3 of them once again found silence.

Kurai and Rumi's mind was cleared of worries, during the time of the challenge at least.

Meanwhile, Araki was racking his brain out.

His quirk was called 'Persuasion'. It wasn't anything impressive but he could influence someone's thought.

Although it was still on a small scale, and not harmful.

The whole challenge, he spent his time analysing the other kids.

He noted where they made mistakes, their fears, their mentality, their character traits. He had to have a lot of data to use his quirk but he didn't mind.

He even liked this part because it felt to him like he was some sort of police agent, or a special kind of detective/Hero.

Unfortunately, for the first time he couldn't see through someone. Such a person was now 2 meters away from him.

'Kurai...' To him, Kurai looked flawless, let it be physically because Araki never trained or mentally.

Well, his mental toughness at least.

On the other hand...

'Rumi...' Glancing next to him, he looked at the person with the most flaw he had ever observed.

Again, not physically because Rumi's body was art compared to other girls; toned and muscular thighs capable of crushing watermelons, chiselled abs who looked lick-worthy and a nice V-shape coupled with nice arms.

But mentally. Her behaviour was sometimes calm and other times erratic. He couldn't understand her either.

Still, she looked like the perfect target for his quirk. That's also why he tried to approach her with that friend's request.

If he could infiltrate her mind and make her give up the challenge by jumping in the water or giving up... 'I may have a chance...'

Sadly, he miscalculated their relationship...

'I'll have to try again!' Araki's resolve once again picked up.

...

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...

40 minutes later, it has been exactly 1 hour since the start.

Until now it was pretty easy to stand on the pole but at the one hour mark Ryuko did her thing...

"Attention please everyone! The standing platform will now shrink!"

Instantly, 3 teachers standing behind them activated a mechanism which made half of the wooden platform fall into the water.

From the initial square of 20 cm, the platform was now a rectangle of 20x10cm. (A/N: I didn't really measure my foot to have a good scaling, so I wrote what looked reasonable enough.)

The tip of their toes was now on the edge and each hour it would shrink more.

This time Kurai held off and didn't taunt anyone, mainly because he now understood what would happen.

'This game suddenly became more exciting!' His reaction was the opposite of what he was showing.

Indeed, he was now more thrilled than anything.

Although he was still as confident because of his cat characteristics, like equilibrium, agility, dexterity or even endurance and stamina.

So he quietly set his gaze straight, observing the waves and waiting for one of his opponents' first mistake.

…

The clock was ticking and another hour passed, their soles were starting to hurt; the platform was halved again and the front of their feets were now standing above the ocean, devoid of any platform.

Well they had 2 positions: remaining in equilibrium on their soles or their front fingers and using the calves muscles as a support.

The challenge really got harder and they knew that the next hour would be even more deadly.

Indeed since it will be halved again, the next time they'll have to stand on one foot.

Thus the imbalance will be greater than ever.

That is if they could remain standing up until there. It wasn't much of a problem for Rumi or Kurai because their quirks were mainly physical.

Sadly, it wasn't the case for Araki, he had to play his cards right, and at the good time. He knew that if he remained silent, without even trying to shake them off, he'd lose. His endurance was way lower than those two chocolate-toned freaks.

Still, he didn't really know how to approach the problem, Kurai was like a fortress, unshakable and unbreakable.

While Rumi 's behaviour was too haphazard, hence the previous rebuttal. 'I can't give up now.'

Araki looked at Rumi and reaffirmed his resolve. He couldn't use his quirk so his only way out was the bunny girl. He didn't want to have regrets later because he let his moment go and didn't try.

"I wonder what it feels to always be second… mmh…" He started.

""...?"" While Ryuko didn't hear his murmur, it didn't escape the two best friends' acute hearing.

Araki looked back at them, "Won't it be a sad life?"

'Oh? So you've decided to show your true face, huh?' Kurai's confusion didn't last long.

Back in the orientation game, he already started noticing things about him, how odd of a kid he was because he was lacking everything in the physical department but still managing to go this far into the game.

His smarts too, he was quite cunning and knew how to talk or how to get information, 'Welp, it didn't work with me, his technique was too amateurish…' He shrugged, obviously as an ex-assassin he wouldn't let information slip unknowingly but he acknowledged that it was enough for 11 years old kids like Rumi.

On the other hand, the bunny in question remained as confused as before but she couldn't care less about a random weakling's rumblings… Unless…

"Don't you agree with me Rumi-san?" He directly confronted her with a smirk carbon-copy of her best friend.

It irritated her more than whatever he was saying. Time was slowly ticking and she knew that the next hour was close, she wholeheartedly knew that she shouldn't fall to his provocations, she knew…

"What the hell did ya say?" But she couldn't help herself, hotheadedness wasn't something she could easily contain.

"I'm talking about you." His voice became more soothing and calm.

Rumi only glared at him, not noticing the subtle changes. Kurai saw right through it and only shook his head to get out of the 'persuasion zone'.

Now that he was free of any control on his thoughts, he debated whether he should help Rumi or not. 'Nah… I'm not her guardian or anything, I shouldn't babysit her… And it's not a life or death situation anyway.'

"Don't you resent Kurai for always stealing your first place?"

"..." She stopped momentarily at his sweet whispers.

"Don't you hate it that all your efforts only amount to second place? And always in second place?"

His words were Araki's tries to muddle her mind, that was his only weapon.

"Y…" Rumi couldn't finish her words, something deep in her wanted to nod along. It was the easiest way after all, the most comfortable one.

So why not just let it go? She asked herself this question but Araki didn't let her reminisce longer.

"Aren't you tired at least?" His questions kept raining down on her.

All she wanted to do was to express her agreement with his statement, even though she was trying to fight back internally, 'No! No!'

"There's always the easy way, why do you keep struggling?" But she knew that the moment she allowed herself to succumb to his words would be the moment she'd lose everything.

Kurai was observing the whole ordeal expressionlessly, the outcome didn't change anything to him, he was still as confident in his victory. Although he'd love to see Rumi overcome this by herself.

The bunny girl's legs started shaking, the hesitation and the temptation were growing more and more. She was trying to find an anchor, something that could wake up her muddled mind and keep her stuck on this pole forever.

Araki wasn't stopping, "Losing ain't worth it…"

'Losing ain't worth it?' His last sentence resonated in her mind, so much that she had a little blackout where even her hearing lost its ability.

'Losing…?' Rumi started to repeat the word until it clicked.

Regaining her senses, she shook her head quickly and near instantly it was as if a fog was lifted.

Her feet anchored into the pole were now as firm as in the beginning, and her will to fight came back again.

"Won't—" Now that her hearing and all was back, Araki's irritating voice came to pester her ears again.

"Shut up." Rumi's tone was dry, she was angry at herself for being so close to losing to such a guy.

"Look, losing isn't anything b—" Once again Araki couldn't finish what he wanted to say.

"Losing, huh? Ahaha!"

While the bunny was laughing, Araki was asking himself where did he fuck up again, he was sure to have put enough pressure and persuasion on his words.

'So why?' He kept asking himself.

When she finished mocking him, her gaze became more serious, "Someone once told me: "Even if you're losing, still fight back." And I surely won't lose to you."

For the second time of the day, he was gobsmacked, on the other hand Kurai had a smirk after hearing his old quote.

Unfortunately, they didn't have more time to debate because directly after, Ryuko's voice echoed above the sea to signal the decisive shrinkage of the platform.

"Goddammit!" Now on one foot, they all had to be real calm so as to not fall, which wasn't Araki's case.

He knew that if his attempt at fooling Rumi didn't work he'd be the first one to fall.

*Splash*

His body hit the water first, making both friends turn their heads at him.

"Good try mate."

"Humph!"

He then swam up to Ryuko to wait for the last part, the unveiling of the game's champion.

And wait he did, the game lasted longer than he or Ryuko thought.

Even if their calves were hurting from standing for more than 3 hours on a small surface, neither was complaining, no they weren't even speaking.

Minutes passed and the stalemate remained.

"Still fight back, huh? It's good, but it's not gonna work against me." Kurai broke the ice and taunted Rumi to try and finish the game faster.

Rumi's whole body was hurting, her shoulder and arms because she had the 'T' position for a while, her sole and calf too. The soreness was getting overbearing for her, but she was still raring to go for more.

Her leg wasn't stable anymore and she could fall at any given time.

"I won't ever give up!" She answered him.

"I know, but even if you don't want to, your muscles will let you down by themselves."

The instant his words left his mouth, she lost equilibrium.

He knew better than anybody how breaking past his limits work, and sometimes the body just fails you, in the end a body isn't a machine that can keep going for eternity.

Even his muscles were starting to get sore, so he couldn't imagine what she was feeling, 'Sigh, what a troublesome muscle-head.'

"OI! Bastard! Arrrghhh!"

*Splash-Plouff*